Give Love a Try
by fitzpleasures
Summary: Shane and Mitchie were best friends. They were in love with each other. He never told her how he felt. She doesn't want to take a chance and ruin their friendship. One night, that all changes.


**Summary: Shane and Mitchie were best friends. They were in love with each other. He never told her how he felt. She doesn't want to take a chance and ruin their friendship. One night, that all changes.**

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><p><strong>Give Love A Try<strong>

_**Freshman Year**_

She changed. He noticed.

The girl who used to wear tattered t-shirts with different bands printed on them was gone. She was now replaced with a young lady who wore flattering dresses, flowing skirts and fitted jeans.

It wasn't a bad change. In fact, he _liked_ the change.

"Hey Mitchie." He hated the way his voice cracked. His dad told him it was just a phase and he'd grow out of it but he couldn't wait. He needed his voice to stop cracking, _now_.

"Shane!" She embraced him in a hug and he couldn't help but notice how now her hugs felt different. He'd be lying if he said he didn't notice that not only had her style changed but so did her body. They had spent the whole summer away from each other and he definitely didn't remember his childhood friend as being so…_curvy_.

"We can never spend a summer apart again. I missed you so much." She whispered, as they stayed still embraced.

_I've missed you so much. _I was a relief to see that maybe she had missed him as much as he missed her.

"Never again," Once more, his voice cracked. He hated it. She released his grip on him and stood back in front of him. "How was vacation?"

"It was really good. Of course, you know, New York is amazing. Oh and you'll never guess who was coincidently staying at the same hotel as me," He was mesmerized by the way her shiny gloss lips formed her words so perfectly. "Kyle Mayer! Apparently his dad works with my dad so we kinda hung out a lot."

Jealously. That was what he instantly felt. He didn't think it was fair that some other guy, one who had been a jerk to him since fifth grade, got to spend a whole summer with _his_ best friend.

"Mitch!"

He couldn't believe his ears. Kyle had came running up to the two of them, interrupting their private conversation, and called Mitchie by the nickname only Shane had been able to call her.

He couldn't believe his eyes when Kyle snaked his arms around her shoulders and kissed her on the cheek.

She didn't look him in the eyes. She was embarrassed, he could tell. She didn't want him to know yet. Maybe she didn't want him to know at all.

"Did you tell him?" Kyle asked with his un-cracking voice. Just another reason for Shane to be jealous.

"No but I think you can figure it out, right Shane?" Why couldn't she just say it? Did she not want to say it? Did she find it uncomfortable to tell her best friend that she was dating a guy who couldn't stand him and vice versa?

"Yeah, I get it. I'm happy for you, Mitchie." He walked away from the two. He wasn't lying. He was happy for her. As long as she smiled, he would smile. She was his best friend and nothing more. He would be happy for her no matter what.

Mitchie dated Kyle until the end of their freshman year. She had finally figured out that he was secretly seeing Tess Tyler behind her back. Shane had known this for months but he didn't tell her. He couldn't bear to see her hurt from something he said.

Then again, he couldn't bear to see her hurt at all.

Like they agreed, they didn't spend the summer apart. He was at her house everyday, helping her try to get over the breakup she had just went through. He would do whatever it took to get her to smile again.

That was the first time he sang to her. Her favorite song, 'She Will Be Loved' seemed so fitting for the current situation she was going through. In a way he was expressing some feelings he felt for her through the song but she'd never know. To her, he was just her best friend trying to cheer her up.

When he was done singing, she did something he'd remember always. She kissed him on the cheek.

To her, it was nothing. To him, it was everything.

"Thank you so much, Shane."

"You're welcome, Mitch." Now, once again, he was the only person who'd be calling her that.

And that was the way he like it.

_**Sophomore Year**_

He gritted his teeth and tapped his pencil on his desk watching the happy couple in the front of the classroom.

He didn't hate them. That would imply he hated her too and that was something he could never, _ever_ do. No matter how matter how many guys she dated, and subsequently chose over him, Shane Gray would never, _ever_ hate Mitchie Torres.

"Shane!"

She was calling him over to the lab table. Obviously her current boyfriend, quarterback of the beloved James Madison High School football team, wasn't smart enough to know how to mix together a few chemicals. Of course she was never good at chemistry but in his mind, she had no faults.

He arrived at the table, the two of them giggling and smiling. It killed him inside. He knew she was just his best friend and he should feel what he felt for her but he did.

"Shane, Josh and I are having trouble with the assignment. Can you help us out?" He would never, _ever_ say no to her.

"Sure." He walked around to the opposite side of the lab table, squeezing his body in between the two of them. After re-reading the instructions the teacher had given them he poured the right chemicals into the beaker causing the liquid to turn blue, exactly what the teacher had wanted.

"Yay! Thanks Shane," She turned and wrapped her small arms around him. He tentatively wrapped his own arms around her. "You're such a lifesaver."

After releasing her from his grip, he turned to face _him_.

"Yeah, thanks man." Josh slapped him on the shoulder as a means to thank him.

"Anytime." He would always be there for Mitchie. Josh? Not so much.

Mitchie dated Josh the jock until winter break when the jerk broke up with her right before Christmas. Shane, being the good guy he was, gathered all of the money he had gotten from doing yard work for neighbors, babysitting and small gigs he performed with his brothers, and went to a music store and bought her the nicest looking used guitar in the building.

"But Shane, I can't play guitar." She told him when she accepted the gift.

"It's okay, I can teach you."

He shouldn't have done that. He should have told her that she was right and that he'd return the guitar and just give her the money as a Christmas gift but he didn't.

He spent the next three months teaching her to play the guitar. Those were three wonderful months. He had never been so close to her before. They were already best friends but the guitar just seemed to bring them even closer.

It gave him a glimmer of hope that maybe she'd pick him.

_**Junior Year**_

Now he had changed. His shirts fit a little tighter around the arms. His voice didn't crack anymore. In fact, it was quite deeper. The blemishes that once plagued his face didn't anymore. His skin was clear, he stood taller and his once unmanageable long hair was now short and styled.

Shane felt like a whole new guy.

They had broken their promise. This time, Shane's family wanted to vacation in California meaning he hadn't seen her since the end of junior year. As he walked into the school that first day, his stomach was in knots waiting to lay eyes on her.

"Shane!" She had spotted him from down the hallway. They walked toward each other, huge smiles on each other's faces. When they finally reached each other, she jumped into his arms. He lifted her a few inches off of the floor, something he found easy to do with his newly gained strength. Another nice change.

"Wow, you look…_different_." She commented once he let her go. She looked him up and down, a familiar expression on her face. He had seen that look before. Except she never gave it to him. That was a look he had only seen given to Kyle and Josh.

"So do you. Its like every time I see you, you get a little bit more gorgeous." He was confident in his words. Another change. He was no longer the squeaky voiced timid best friend.

Her cheeks went pink and she looked away from him. He made her blush, again, something he had only really seen her do around Kyle and Josh.

"I thought you should be the first to know, I wrote a song." She wore a proud smile on her face. "But its not entirely done yet so,"

"After school, come to my house and I'll help you finish it."

Surely enough, after school she showed up at his locker. They rode together to her house. Over the summer, his dad had helped him buy himself a truck. It was old, a bit rough around the edges but it was, as Mitchie put it, 'charming'.

When they got to his house, his parents weren't home. He found a note on the kitchen counter letting him know they'd be back in an hour or so. That meant he only had an hour alone with Mitchie before his parents showed up and started going all 'parental' on her.

They spent thirty minutes of their hour finishing her song. It was good. Shane was no professional but he could see definite potential in her. Then again, his judgment was kind of bias.

"You're getting better at guitar," Shane complimented her as she handed him his guitar. She borrowed it so they could finish the song.

"Well I had a good teacher," Her tone of voice, how close she was sitting next to him, the way her leg just so happened to keep brushing against his, she was flirting. He just didn't know why she was flirting with him.

Was he finally moving out of the best friend zone? He'd have to test his theory.

He had done something he had wanted to do ever since the beginning of freshman year.

He kissed her.

She kissed back.

"Wait," She pushed him away. He was still reeling from their two-minute make-out session.

"We can't do this, Shane. You're my best friend. I don't want to ruin our friendship."

He wanted to protest. He wanted to tell her she was wrong. He wanted to kiss her again.

But he didn't.

"You're right. Best friends don't kiss, right?" He had laughed after his words but the situation was anything but humorous to him.

His theory was wrong.

He was still in the best friend zone. It seem liked he'd be there forever.

_**Senior Year**_

They went to prom together. But just as friends. They both made that clear.

"The stars look beautiful tonight." She commented as they looked through the sunroof of the limo they had rented with their friends.

The group they had attended prom went had all poured into various hotel rooms. They were coupled off so one could only assume what they were doing in those hotel rooms.

"Not as beautiful as you." He didn't have time to look at stars. He wanted to remember Mitchie exactly as she was: happy, glowing, in his presence. He wouldn't get any more moments like this.

"Shane, you gotta stop saying things like that. This is why people think we're dating." People thought they were dating? "Well, that and the fact you walk me to all my classes, we always hang out together–"

"Is that so bad?" He had to ask. He wouldn't get another chance to ask. "Mitchie, I've liked you for four years. Last year, when I kissed you, that was the closest I've ever been to letting you know how I feel."

"But like I said when we kissed, I don't want to ruin our friendship. I don't want to take that risk."

"What if we're meant to be?" For the first time during their conversation, she stopped looking out of the sunroof and was now looking at him.

"What if we're not?"

"We'll never know unless we try."

He was convincing her. He could see it in her eyes. She knew he was right.

"Just take a chance, Mitchie. Give love a try. Give _us_ a try."

It happened again, only differently.

This time, _she_ kissed him.

He took that as her trying.

_**Seven Years Later**_

Seven years ago, Shane was an eighteen-year-old boy in love with his best friend.

Now, Shane is a twenty-five year old who is _still_ in love with his best friend. Only now his best friend is his wife too.

Seven years ago, Mitchie was a seventeen-year-old girl who was in love with her best friend but never did anything about for fear of ruining their friendship. Seven years ago, her best friend convinced her to give a relationship a chance.

She did.

Now, Mitchie was thankful she decided to give a relationship with her best friend a chance because now, her best friend was her husband.

And neither one of them be any happier.

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><p><strong>I'm not very good a one-shots so I hope that was okay! Review and make me happy, please! :)<strong>


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